Hi,

Has anyone noticed any strange ( actually ANY) reactions to the anti-inflammatory - Rimadyl, either orally or intra-muscular ?? By reactions I mean anything to slight changes in appetite, any depressions, any neurological dysfunctions ( seizures/ataxia etc), odd stools and would you be kind enough to share. Epileptic dogs also, when your dogs need an A/Inflammatory ( NSAID) what alternatives do you use ?

Many thanks
~vm~

VM,
We have used Rimadyl daily x2 for the past 6 months or so. No reaction at all, just a dog who isn't in pain any longer!

HTH
Norm

Quite a number of dogs do get a reaction to Rimadyl anyway. It is not 100% safe (But then, what is?) In the days when I had an epileptic dog I had no need of it so have no experience in that area. I can't imagine any neurological problems coming from it but everything else is very likely from what I've heard. Is you dog on medication for the seizures? A reaction between the two would be the most likely I would have thought.

If you manage to find out anything please post and let me know. I'd be very interested.

Regards, John

Hi both of you,

Norm, I am glad to hear it, the efficacy of this drug seems to be all or nothing, it either helps dogs considerably or really can harm them.

John - no she is not on any medication for the seizures, my vet thinks that as they are " infrequent", there is no need to medicate just yet, which I do see the point of as she may never have another one and we certainly cannot find anything that predisposes her to them or indeed triggers them. It's just that there has now been 5 seizures that we know of beginning after 9 years of age and nothing had ever been wrong with her in anyway, except a bad tooth , I am not sure which a/i it was then, I was a different vet practise, but since then, she has been spayed after a risk of pyometra aged 10 1/5 but general anaesthetic/anti inflammatories have been involved since then. It is indeed the only common link except for one last summer and that involved a change of routine, which we put down to stress,except she has been through far more than a daily upset in the months since then and was seizure free for 8 months in probably the most stressful period of her life.

Rimadyl was never tested extensively on older dogs in its trials ( there is a Rimadyl page called the Senior Dogs project) and last week she had an anti inflammatory shot for enlarged lymph node under her chin and then has now had another seizure. Seems too coincidental to me.

Unfortunately, I absolutely do not buy this epilepsy diagnosis, I have joined epil k9 etc, done my homework, spoken to people and I cannot find a common link with my experiences and theirs,except for the type of seizure or stage of itself. Everything about this dog is different, even my vet admitted she was totally dumbfounded, nothing shows up in bloodwork, bile acids, ultra sound, except she has low thyroid levels - we tried soloxine on various dosage and nothing changed at all.

I will continue the search :) thanks for responding
~VM~

I must say, I never used medication with Beth. She was only about 18 months when she went epileptic. The thoughts of her having to spent a life time on drugs was not something I would accept lightly so I thought I'd see how it would go. Her fits came around on a six week cycle but never got any worst. She had a long happy life and died just short of her 14th birthday. Stress did seem to be followed by a fit, usually a couple of days afterwards.

Usually Grand Mall Epilepsy starts at quite an early age. Beth's 18 months is quite usual so from that, yours is not the normal but epilepsy can have any number causes. Poisoning, a knock, a viral thing! Unlike Grand Mall, which (In certain breeds anyway) is almost certainly inherited.

Best wishes, John

VM

Perhaps I should have added that the dog in question is two years old and has arthiritis caused by a luxating patella.

Norm

I used Rimadyl long term with no side effects thankfully - but what it did do was pick my little dog up off the floor and put him back on his feet.
Lara x

Hi

I have had a rotti aged 4 put on Rimadyl and she was very ill on it. She was pooing and bringing up black stuff which smelt really bad. She was also very depressed. Vet said it was nothing to do with the drug and to carry on using it but I took her off of it and she recovered within 24 hrs.
Also had a 10 mth old lab given it and she never moved off the carpet the whole time she was on it, again took her off and she was back to her old self.
All my vets notes now say the dogs MUST NEVER be given rimadyl. I know the vets use it after ops as Georgia my lab was given it after a c-section and I didn't know until I got a printout of the bill some weeks later, I was not a happy person.
Another of my labs had an op recently and they gave her Metacam instead.

One of my dogs was on Rimadyl for a short while, and it was so effective at removing the pain that he started over-using his bad leg! I had to take him off it so that he would rest it more. Typical! ;)

Hi VM
Since seeing all the info on the senior dogs website, I have been very anti Rimadyl. When you see the 'roll-call' of dogs who have died from the side effects and read all the terribly sad accounts from heartbroken owners, it's hard to remain unmoved.

Nicolla's experience is fairly typical of some of the problems Rimadyl can cause. It's a good job she didn't listen to her vet when he said the effects were nothing to do with the drug - if she had I doubt whether her rotti would have recovered.
The makers of the drug, Pfizer, strongly recommend that vets should make owners fully aware of potential side effects but unfortunately many choose to ignore this advice. If, subsequently a problem does arise, they try to blame something else - another condition/age of the dog etc.

From what you have said in your posts I would guess that your dog could be particularly sensitive to Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory drugs, especially perhaps the newer ones such as Rimadyl and Metacam.

Joyce

my neo had a very bad reaction to rimadyl at 9mths, she spent a week at cambridge animal hospital ,they thought she would have to be put to sleep, but she is now doing fine ,still has to see the vet quite often

Glad to hear that your dog recovered, Keesha. It must have been a very worrying time for you. As a matter of interest did your vet warn you of the possible side effects when he prescribed Rimadyl ?

no, the vet never warned us about any side affects, but in all fairness they have been very good with her ongoing treatment, and their quick action's at the start must have helped her chances, if she had been left any longer i hate to think what might have happened.

I have had 3 different dogs on it for short courses - 7 days I think - and all of them have been fine thankfully and it has appeared to work well.

I had a Dobermann on Rimadyl for 3wks before being put to sleep. She was given it to try and control the inflamation / pain following diagnosis of Bone Cancer on her shoulder. We were warned of the side effects of it's long term use but as she was on a waiting game it was a risk we took - the Rimadyl did not cause any side effects for her appart from increased thirst, but the cancer got the better of her and the pain killers were not working enough and we had to put her to sleep prevent any more suffering. (Try using google search engine for Rimadyl - when she was prescribed it I did quite some research on the net and from what I can remember I found two excellent sites with loads of info on)

One of my Mastiffs was given Rimadyl for an alleged inflammation of the paw ( which in fact turned out to be a symptom of a very rare form of leukemia). Within 24 hours of taking Rimadyl she was vomiting a thick black/bloody liquid. We took her straight back to the vets who took her of the Rimadyl immediately but would not say that that was the cause of the vomiting, the dog never vomited again. Since doing my own research I am now of the opinion that Rimadyl did cause the vomiting and can also have other serious side effects. Although my vet has since tried to give Rimadyl to one of my other dogs I have refused to accept it and insist on Metacam instead.

I thought Rimadyl and Metacam were both Carprofen? Am I wrong?

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

Hi Jo, Rimadyl is Carprofen & Metacam is Meloxicam.

Christine, Spain.